Month: September 2022

What’s working for leading radio stations around the world at the cutting edge of creativity in programming, sales, marketing, and technology? How do they unlock potential, extend reach, strengthen brands, develop new revenue models, and create sustainable advantages?A panel of experts discussed this in the session “Creativity, Innovation and Competitive Advantage”.The session was moderated by Francis Currie and the panel included Anna Dixon, Senior Service Designer, ABC, Udit Tyagi, Chief Digital Officer, Radio Mirchi, India and Chris Johnson, Head of Digital & Innovation, SCA.Francis began the session by asking the panelists what is the most exciting thing they have seen in the digital space?Chris said: “The practical applications of AI, they are going to add to our daily lives.” For Anna, “seeing a shift to sharing more authentic experiences is very interesting,” and Udit found in car consumption and NFT initiatives to be most promising.When asked which part of AI they found most interesting, everyone had a different opinion. Chris found content creation to be very interesting, “We wanted to have an IP an we gave an AI program 5 minutes of audio and it’s consistently creating an audio tree,” he said.Anna said: “News. If there’s endless amounts of data, AI can sift through it and save time. We’re also working with a company in Spain on a misinformation ping system. If a politician or someone says something that’s not accurate or true, you’ll get a ‘ping’ wherever you’re seeing them.”Udit spoke of integrating AI with wearables. “Information from wearables can integrate with audio to make recommendations relevant to users.”Moving on, Francis asked Udit: “Is traditional radio dead? If not, why has Mirchi dropped it from its name?”“It’s not dead. In fact, Mirchi is back at pre-covid numbers on Radio, which will grow but maybe not at the same pace as digital. We don’t want to constrict ourselves to radio, you have to be everywhere. As some quoted Charles Darwin – It’s not the strongest or the fittest who survive, it’s those who are most adaptable,” replied Udit.“Anna, you have access to a lot of research. When you see the younger generation, is radio dead for them?” said Francis.“First of all, I think one should kill the question ‘’Is radio dead’. In Australia there’s still a big digital divide and a lot of people don’t have data access. For them radio is important,” she replied.Discussing content monetisation, Francis asked about new ideas to make new money from new people.Chris said that they focus on premium services and products such as podcasts and with integrated sponsorships. Udit said in India people have been lethargic to move from radio to digital and more groundwork needs to be done.What does the audio landscape look like 10 years ahead?Udit said: “It has to evolve. Currently it’s a very app driven market. As soon as everyone digitizes, you can be platform agnostic which will create enormous opportunities. NFTs would be very aggressive.”Anna said discovery of content and personalisation would be important in the future.“Radio is slowly going to decline as smart speakers rise. Podcasting will grow in momentum and you’re also going to have new formats. Many people will be thinking how to distill their business down to an icon on a screen,” said Chris.Photo – John Maizels […]

The car of the future challenges radio’s prominent role in the dashboard: new connected cars will come with internet connections in-built and large touchscreens that make accessing entertainment other than live radio the easiest it has ever been. Radio’s role in the car is under threat.Jamie Chaux, Head of Digital, Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), spoke on what does audio entertainment look like in the future connected car? What is being done right now to ensure radio is as best placed for the rise of the connected car?Speaking about VR, he said: “The car is the original VR experience. The cabin is the VR screen and what’s going on around it is the experience.” More than 80 percent of the people surveyed across the world in a WorldDAb 2021 Car Buyers Survey said they typically listen to the radio in a car and broadcast radio is a must have in cars. When considering which car to purchase, radio is the most important audio feature to have ahead of USB ports, Bluetooth, Android Auto and CarPlay.“In car radio is one of the easiest ways to consume radio in the world,” he said.Giving an example of an initiative to improve the car radio experience, he discussed a pilot project by NAB, US, of which CRA is a member, working with google to design the user experience based on what consumers expect from radio in car. In Australia, DTS has partnered with radio so that radio comes through broadcast, but visuals, artworks and information comes through IP. CRA is also in talks with local government for regulatory support. In Europe, DAB has already been mandated in all new cars.“Radio needs to have depth of content and look really nice. The fact that usage can be measured will also be beneficial in terms of analytics for creating content.”Photo – John MaizelsCars now come with a SIM, which brings a new interface and helps understand the consumption of the car. New models don’t have physical buttons in the dashboard, only touchscreens, “cars have become an extension of your phone without connecting to it.”What does the automotive industry think of all of this? Its aware that consumer expectations are high, but is concerned about the role of big tech in the car –
Who is collecting the data in the car?
Should you let big tech have access to all data points?
How do you manage a logged in driver’s data?
Who is ultimately writing revenue from the consumer?
Speaking about what broadcasters can do he said everyone should be prepared for fragmentation in all the different ways the connected car will go beyond broadcast radio. They need to see if their audio content is fit for the purpose of the future connected car and what other hybrid content they can have ready for car radio.On how competition will evolve, he said: “With touchscreens, you may not be competing with just other stations. The users may not switch stations, they may go to something totally different on their screen.” […]

In the session titled ‘Emergency Broadcasting’ we heard from Australia and Japan how the ABC and NHK have innovated their readiness and organisation to function at the very best when urgent and reliable information is needed the most in case of natural disasters.Seiichi Kuriki, Senior Producer, Global strategy division, NHK WORLD, Japan, was fascinated by radio since childhood and that’s why he chose to join NHK’s international division when he grew up.He made a presentation about NHK’s innovations to provide foreign residents and visitors with more detailed disaster emergency information through broadcasts and webcasts.At first, NHK established its foreign language service for an overseas audience, but in recent years, the number of foreign residents in Japan has been increasing. NHK has included an initiative in its 2021-23 corporate plan to target them for the first time.However, there’s a dilemma that the foreign language service faces. It reaches overseas audience as well as foreigners in Japan, and information for both targets is delivered in the same foreign languages. But the needs of the two audiences are not the same. For the overseas audience, overdetailed disaster emergency info may be boring, although it is very important for foreign residents in Japan.They are addressing this issue in two ways through automation – Code table conversion for fixed pattern information, and AI Translation for freestyle, pattern less, real time information.In order to make it effective, Japan Meteorological Agency is linked with NHK and automatically shares immediate updates in case of strong earthquakes and tsunamis on the public broadcaster’s app and website.Along with automated bulletins, manual updates are also important as they’re more efficient in conveying information flexibly to meet the demand.At the moment, NHK’s technical team is considering applying text-to-speech technology to its multilingual service. In the future, automated bulletins and AI-translated subtitles may be used for podcasts, webcasts or radio broadcasts.Patrick Hession, Emergency Broadcast Lead, ABC, Australia, said that fired and floods are the biggest emergencies that need to be covered in Australia and “we’re focusing on those whose life and property are under immediate threat.”He said that coverage in natural disasters involves doing a bunch of fairly simple things properly and structuring them together to make it useful. It involves maintaining key contacts on ground, for which preparations should be made well in advance keeping in the mind various capacity constraints. It’s also very important to communicate plans clearly with teams and debrief them.“Audience respond and turn to trusted sources in emergencies as events become more serious, and radio is the most trusted source in Australia,” he said.In the last couple of years, ABC has launched an emergency website, which contains some timeless information which can be accessed anywhere, anytime. It also allows one to search for nearby incidents by linking to ABC Radio and digital coverage.He also stressed on managing growing audience expectations, better managing constraints and targeted coverage as important factors in emergency broadcasts. […]